DRUPACE^:. 109 



tube. Pistil 1 (in Osmaronia 5); style simple; ovary 1-celled, 2-ovuled, 

 becoming a drupe. Seed pendulous; cotyledons large, thick, fleshy; 

 albumen 0. 



1. PRUNUS, Varro (PLUM-TREE. PRUNE). Leaves convolute in 

 the bud. Flowers in umbellate clusters from lateral buds, appearing 

 before or with the leaves. Drupe ovoid, glabrous, glaucous; the thick 

 sarcocarp pulpy, sweet or pleasantly acidulous, and with the distinctive 

 flavor of plums; putamen bony, smooth, compressed, acutely edged on 

 one margin, grooved on the other. 



1. P. subcordata, Benth. Arborescent, 3 10 ft. high, much branched, 

 more or less spinescent; nascent leaves and twigs finely pubescent, in 

 age glabrate: leaves ovate, cuneate or subcordate at base, obtuse or 

 acute, sharply serrulate, about 1 in. long, short-petioled: umbels 24- 

 flowered; pedicels % % i n - l n g> fl- white, ^ in. broad: drupe % in. 

 long, red, the pulp rather hard and unpalatable. Hillsides and banks. 

 Fl. March, April. Fr. August, Sept. 



2. CERASUS, Theophr., (CHERRY- TREE. CHOKE-CHERRY. ISLAY). 

 Leaves conduplicate in the bud. Flowers corymbose or racemose from 

 lateral buds which are often leaf-bearing. Drupe globose, glabrous, 

 destitute of bloom; the sarcocarp sweet rather than acidulous (in our 

 species), often keenly bitter, sometimes sour and astringent; putamen 

 osseous or ligneous, smooth, mostly globose, not prominently margined. 



* Flowers corymbose, from lateral buds; drupe small, with bony putamen. 



1. C. emarginata, Dougl. Shrub 38 ft. high, branched from the 

 base and clothed throughout with a smooth shining bark: leaves obovate, 

 oblong or oblanceolate, obtuse, retuse or emarginate, on sterile twigs 

 acutish, %l% in. long, finely crenate -serrulate, mostly uniglandular, 

 and that % on the lower part of the blade, well above the junction with 

 the petiole: fl. few, in a short corymb: fruit bright red, intensely bitter. 

 Hills of the Coast Eange. 



* * Flowers racemose, from axillary leafless buds. 



3. C. ilicifolia, Nutt. Evergreen, often 12-18 ft. high, with well 

 rounded head, the trunk clothed with a dark rough bark: leaves ovate 

 or ovate-lanceolate, obtuse or acute, truncate or rounded at base, coarsely 

 spinose-toothed, coriaceous, glabrous throughout, 12 in. long, short- 

 petioled: racemes 12 in. long, leafless; fl. small: drupe )< in. thick or 

 more, slightly obcompressed, putamen scarcely ligneous; sarcocarp thin, 

 sweetish, when ripe. Oakland Hills, thence southward. 



* * * Flowers racemose at the ends of leafy branchlets; drupe small. 



4. C. demissa, Nutt. Deciduous, 312 ft. high: leaves ovate or 

 oblong-ovate, acute or acuminate, rounded or cordate at base, sharply 



